Polite Guests From the Future
2014 - Sculpture (Sculpture)
Arseny Zhilyaev
This work was conceived by Zhilyaev as part of the M. I. R.: Polite Guests from the Future exhibition. This iteration of the imagined Museum of Russian History (M. I. R.) is seen from a distant future standpoint. The Russian word ‘mir’ means both peace as well as ‘the world’, and is also the name of the first space station to ever orbit earth. In this Museum’s collection of histories and artifacts which depict the rise and eventual dominance of Russian Cosmic Federation over the charted Cosmos, central is this signature uniform of the cosmic militia. Fashioned in stellar camouflage and armed with a translucent replica of the infamous Kalashnikov rifle, this ensemble finds its roots in the ‘polite politics’ of Russia in the twenty first century. Arseny Zhilyaev is arguably one of the most influential contemporary Russian Artists of his generation. For Zhilyaev, his medium of choice is the exhibition itself. His practice is deeply rooted in the study of presentation and display of artworks, histories and social processes. His multi-faceted installations combine historical fact with fiction in imagining new possibilities and futures. Inspired by Soviet and Marxist Museology, Zhilyaev often turns Russian Cosmism and its philosophies of the universal museum.
Arseny Zhilyaev is arguably one of the most influential contemporary Russian artists of his generation. For Zhilyaev, his medium of choice is the exhibition itself. His practice is deeply rooted in the study of presentation and display of artworks, histories and social processes. His multi-faceted installations combine historical fact with fiction in imagining new possibilities and futures. Inspired by Soviet and Marxist Museology, Zhilyaev often turns to Russian Cosmism and its philosophies of the universal museum. To trace Zhilyaev’s work, one should span from the avant-garde of the 1920’s to the ‘shock therapy’ of the 1990’s in Russia. As a member of the young generation of Russian artists, Zhilyaev looks at the changes of his country through the 20th century to compose his works. With a specific attention of art’s relations to politics, education and pedagogy, Arseniy Zhilyaev reflects on the different roles of the museum and exhibition making. Despite the current use of art as entertainment, Zhilyaev wants to rethink the museum as an educational institution connecting art and history.
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Arseny Zhilyaev
His large installation entitled The Museum of Proletarian Culture (2012) looked at the changes in artistic practice that have occurred in Russia throughout the last thirty years – from the amateur art of the late Soviet era to the commercialized post-Soviet cultural practices and the more recent self-expression via contemporary social networks...